Today, laptops are becoming very common in police cars. There exist, however, many safety issues related to operation of these laptops because police officers have to take their eyes off the road or away from an arrested suspect to operate the laptop computer. Furthermore, the computer still has limited communication capabilities, with a central server that is generally only able to respond to requests typed by an officer using a keyboard. Thus, officers are generally limited to typing in driver's license and license plate numbers in the field. These limitations make it difficult for an officer to attempt to identify a suspect or provide information to a centralized, dispatch facility at times when it is most needed.
What is needed is a device that an officer can take into the field and use to safely collect information on-site, communicate the information off-site to a centralized, dispatch facility, and communicate information from the off-site facility to the officer. The present invention provides such a device in concert with a distributed communications system.